I'm catching up with various MC postings and was looking at Ray Driscoll's "Death of Queen Jane", which I recorded from Ray. I have a correction to the words (posting of 6 Aug 00 above et seq), which should start "Queen Jane lay in labour", not harbour! This error comes from when it was published in English Dance and Song, and the error is probably a tribute to my bad handwriting. She's a woman, not a ship, for goodness sake! When I sing it, I have to refrain from singing "Queen Jane lay in labour for 6 months or more", which would be equally unfortunate. The 2nd word of the 3rd verse is obviously no, not not. Ray sometimes sang "with black weeds upon" in verse 4. Also the tune in the midi is not quite what Ray sings, or rather used to sing, as he is not too well at the moment. The first line should end on the tonic, like the second. I'll see if I can work out how to write a midi file and perhaps the words and tune can be corrected. However, if you've learnt it as given, then, heck, that's the folk process for you.

Cheers

Gwilym